Deception and the OU Parking Services

I frequently receive emails from the Communication department asking for participants in various social scientific research projects. I typically only do the ones that give me money. Monday was no exception.

Monday morning I arrived at the Center for Applied Social Research. When I pulled into the parking lot I was surprised to see how many spots were in the lot. I looked around and saw no signs informing me that parking anywhere in the Wal-Mart sized parking lot was prohibited. I parked and went inside.

Once the study began I was asked to answer a series of questions ranging from preferences in social interaction to individual ethical standards. I completed the survey and was told that the next part of the study was research on the dynamics of teamwork. I was then moved to another room where a classmate of mine was to be my partner. We were told we had 5 minutes to answer 8 trivia question, and we would be rewarded and extra $5 for every questions we answered correctly. The main stipulation was that we were only allowed to use our minds (no text messaging, internet, etc.). Once the proctor left the room, we quickly realized we didn't know the answers to any of the 8 questions. My partner noticed that the computer we used to take the survey was left on the table, and suggested that we use google to find the answers. I told him I thought it was a bad idea and that I didn't want to do cheat (I was pretty sure someone was watching us). He continued to insist and finally said he was going to do it regardless of what I thought. He typed in a few searches and wrote down a few of the answers before our time was up. Needless to say I was fairly p-oed.

From there I went into an interview room where a lady asked me questions about the exercise. She asked how we worked together as a team and how we came to consensus when answering the questions. I answered honestly, but may have omitted the cheating portion of our exercise (exact game in practice). At some point she asked if I knew what the University Code of Ethics and Disciplinary Action was. This made me uncomfortable. She then asked me point blank if we had cheated. I immediately confessed, and ratted my partner (not my finest hour).

Turns out my partner was in on the scheme. He was working for the researcher and tried to get me to cheat and the lie about it. The study was actually on deception, not teamwork. If I would have cheated and lied about it to the interviewer I would have earned $40 extra dollars. That annoyed me.

So, I took my $20 and headed back out to the large parking lot (again, no lack of empty spaces). I get in my car, and as I'm pulling away I notice a yellow envelope lodged underneath my windshield wiper. It was a $25 ticket, issued 2 minutes before I got back to my car.

I lost $5 going to a study where I was penalized for being honest.